Nov 11, 2009 - Tibet - Nyalam, Tingre, Lhatse

I'm in Tibet! Actually it's really now China, with a few poor Tibetans handing on for dear life as the Chinese come in and destroy the place. Every now and the we are taken to a nice monastery that somehow survived the destruction that took place when the Chinese took over Tibet. Even then we're not sure just how original things are. Outside of that we are seeing nasty new Chinese development, with towns resembling those you would find in China. Most of the old Tibetan houses have been destroyed. The start of the Tibet tour was Kathmandu...

May 15, 2009 - Tingri

I woke up early (did I say 'woke', that cannot be since I don't think I even slept) and took 10 minutes to convince myself to get out of bed and brave the freezing cold and howling wind. We decided to back to Base Camp again and make Top ten come with us so that we could actually see the whole camp and take more than surreptitious photos when the police weren't watching. If I thought yesterday was bitterly cold then I was mistaken. This was the coldest weather I have ever experienced. Even with 8 layers on the top and 3 on the bottom, plus...

Nov 1, 2006 - Old Tingri to Kathmandu

Old Tingrie...or old Grungie might be a better name for the village. This small, remote town is not only rough around the edges, but rough through and through. Lonely Planet was way off the mark on their hotel recommendation. An absolute dump. We had to settle for an almost-absolute dump instead. We were fortunate enough to be joined for dinner by Chrissy (Ireland) and Chris (Australia), a couple we had met along our travels. After a dinner and a beer, we headed tentatively to our quasi-beds. At 8am, we began our trek to the Nepalese...